Melody Zekey

DIASPORA VOTE FOR SOUTH AFRICA 2024
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of South Africa has announced that Feb. 3-4, 2024, are the dates for the second and final voter registration weekend in preparation for next year’s national and provincial elections.
The country’s 23,296 voting stations will open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Feb. 3-4 next year to allow new voters to register and existing voters to inspect and if necessary, update their registration details, the IEC said in a statement in a statement issued on IEC website. South Africans from the age of 16 can register to vote.

Procedure for diaspora vote was also issued with attention to all South African missions around the world. The IEC confirmed that the online portal was now active for South African nationals to register to vote abroad in the 2024 elections. They also announced that South Africans living abroad will have an opportunity to register at South Africa’s 120 high commissions, embassies and consulates on 26, 27 and 28 January 2024.

South Africans abroad who wish to vote in the upcoming elections must be registered voters and inform the Electoral Commission of their intentions to vote outside the country. Voting abroad can only be cast on the specified date with no exceptions.
South African democracy is considered one of the most dramatic stories of recent times. On April 27, 1994, South Africa held its democratic elections ending years of exclusion and repression based on race. The once banned African National Congress (ANC) won the elections led by Nelson Mandela as the first democratically elected black president.
The voting process encompassed each and every South African, home and away. It was reported then that almost 100 000 South Africans living abroad cast their votes ushering in a multiracial democracy in South Africa.

However, in 1998, the ANC abolished diaspora voting leaving thousands of South Africans unable to vote. The Constitutional Court would force the government to re-instate diaspora voting in 2009 and all South Africans home and away were allowed to participate in the national elections.

Malawi, Mozambique, Botswana, DRC are some of the SADC countries with diaspora vote. Zambia is yet to establish that with Zimbabwe also not yet engaging diaspora voting even though civic groups having been advocating for the inclusion of Zimbabweans living abroad.